John Middleton Execution Stayed by Federal Judge at Last Minute

By Sami K. Martin, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, July 15, 2014

John Middleton, 54, has just been granted a stay of execution by a federal judge. Middleton was to be put to death at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, July 16, for three murders. However, his lawyers brought evidence that Middleton had the perfect alibi for the murders – he was actually in jail.

Joseph Perkovich told The Guardian that Middleton was incarcerated during at least one of the murders. Middleton was sentenced to death for three murders, and his lawyers stated that he was convicted on circumstantial evidence, with no DNA or forensic evidence being presented to prove that Middleton committed the crimes.

Randy Hamilton, Stacey Hodge, and Alfred Pinegar were all killed within days of each other in 1995, and the state of Missouri's case against Middleton rested largely on the fact that Pinegar was killed on June 23. However, new evidence suggested that he was actually killed a day later, on June 24, when Middleton was serving time in Iowa.

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"It's hard to think of a more iron-clad alibi than that," Perkovich said.

One of the key reasons that Pinegar's death date has been changed is the discovery of insect larvae collected from his body. A forensic entomologist originally stated that based on the larvae's development, Pinegar was likely killed on June 23. However, the Harrison County coroner at the time, Carl Slaughter, told Middleton's defense team that there is no way the insects could have been collected for evidence on June 26 but rather on June 27, leading to the change in date to June 24.

"For almost 20 years we thought that my analysis had been accurate," forensic entomologist Robert Hall said. "But now we find that the time of collection of the insects was about 24 hours later than I had been informed. I went back and did the analysis again and found that it pushed the time the victim had to be dead, similarly, by a day to June 24."

Missouri officials originally denied Middleton's request for a postponement of execution, but now a federal judge has granted a stay of execution, though it's not known yet on what grounds the stay was granted.